


High Towers

by Lyssandra_Med



Series: One-Shot [24]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Knight and Princess, Alternate Universe - Myths and Legends, Bellamione Cult War, Discord: Bellamione Cult, F/F, Fluff, Team Furbae, towers, turnabout
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-02
Updated: 2019-10-02
Packaged: 2020-11-22 02:48:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20866967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lyssandra_Med/pseuds/Lyssandra_Med
Summary: Bellatrix is a PrincessHermione is a KnightThey meet, oddly enough.





	High Towers

**Author's Note:**

> Barely edited

With surprising force, and no small amount of surprise, Bellatrix leapt from her place atop her bed when a grappling hook came sailing over the low windowsill leading to her prison cell.

A _ grappling _hook.

_ A grappling hook! _

Bellatrix sprinted forward from her place beside the bed before leaning herself, head and torso together, precariously out of the miles high window while her black tresses fluttered every which way amid the wind that shook the cold and lonely tower.

_ There! _

Down below her, by half the length of the tower if she was estimating correctly, was a knight in mid-scale up the shear wall. They were moving quickly forward towards their target, unfeeling stone beneath them and open air behind, as sunlight dappled off their red and golden armor. Bellatrix pulled herself back inside the room and began a frantic search for brushes, her dress, wooden boxes filled with makeup that she hadn’t touched or even seen in ages. 

It took her some effort but soon enough she had fled her cursed exterior of ‘Witch hiding in a Tower’, for the tamer (and thus far more appropriate to her station) look of ‘Princess waiting to be saved by a heroic Knight’. The day she had dreamed of for months on end was finally here, her salvation, her time to flee from this accursed Tower and all the memories it held within. Andromeda, wayward sister that she was, must have finally spread the word of her predicament, finally informed someone of strength and bravery to scale the wall for her retrieval. Or perhaps the foul warlock known the world over as Voldemort (and personally to her as Ass-Hat-Supreme), had finally died or possibly even been stripped from this world entirely, erased from even the dreams of its inhabitants so that she could finally be rescued.

No matter; whatever catalyst had sent this Knight on their errand, they were_ here, _ and coming for her. And damn all the Old Gods, she was ready.

\---

When the metal helm finally peaked over the thin lip of her window, Bellatrix was already lying back on her bed with her limbs splayed out and spread for her soon-to-be savior, a grin pressed into her lips and black eyes glittering in the half darkness that the room had fallen into. She noted with no small amount of amusement that this Knight’s helm was shaped and formed to mimic the head of a lion; a protruding muzzle in mid growl guarded them as a face plate, while a flare of metal and steel fanned out over shoulders and behind their head to mimic a flowing mane of hair.

It was beauty in form and _ very _ clearly an expensive assemblage; no small amount of gold would have gone into purchasing these items. Her gauntlets came into view next; thin fingers spread with sharpened metal and tipped at the end in simulacrums of a lions claw, neat and thin enough to press and crack the ancient stone where they gripped. The Knight pushed themselves up and over the window ledge before falling forward and onto the hard stone floor with a gentle _ ‘Oof,’ _ their body laying flat and still for a second or two that left Bellatrix with bated breath as she listened to the strained and exhausted breathing.

When the Knight lay there still, only soft sounds of breathing and metal moving to let her know they were still alive, Bellatrix cleared her throat to begin speaking, no longer ready or willing to let them take their time.

“Ahem,” she broke through the comfortable silence that blanketed the room in a loud, but not startlingly so, voice, “Dear Knight, you who have traveled far and wide to rescue me-”

The Knight shook at her words as if they were awoken from their stupor by a dragon and not a soft voice, the metal bulk of their armor shifting and rolling as they pushed themselves back into the wall beneath the window. Empty and shrouded eyes peered out from within the faux-lion to pierce Bellatrix with _ something, _ even if she wasn’t quite sure what that something was.

“Um…” Bellatrix trailed out into an uneven silence as the Knight continued to stare and she continued right back.

“... Who are you?”

The voice that echoed up from between the mouth of the helm was soft, startled, and quite distinctly _ feminine _ where Bellatrix had instead been expecting bass and bravado. She cocked an eyebrow at the intruder, her body shifting until she could pull her legs up tightly against her chest, no longer quite so sure about whoever it was that had arrived.

“You have the privilege of speaking with Bellatrix Black, the eldest Princess of House Black.” Her eyebrows knitted as she stared and leaned forward towards the Knight, “Who are you?”

The Knights head tilted to the side and then forward as they reached up to undo the clasps hidden beneath the gleaming metal, the sounds of soft snaps and buttons being undone accompanying the slow removal of it entirely.

_ ‘Merlin,’ _ Bellatrix felt her breath hitch shut and then close off entirely as she stared at the unmasked intruder with wide eyes that roved up and down in an effort to etch the face into her mind. _ ‘ _ ** _She’s_ ** _ beautiful.’ _

And she _ was, _ much to Bellatrix’s amusement and startled delight. Where she had been expecting a man chiseled by the gods she had instead received a woman molded by Aphrodite herself.

A head covered in beautiful auburn hair that rippled and shone like wound and spun copper beneath the half-light of the room, skin that was warm and tanned from the Sun and natural beauty, a hard edged look with gentle corners that spoke both experience and softness, lips painted a stunning red that enhanced rather than distracted. Her eyes though, it was her eyes that drew Bellatrix in, that had her near drooling with open amazement and heartfelt wonder. They were twinned orbs of pale yellow glass that absolutely _ shone _ with an inner golden light; twin Suns that blanketed her in warmth the longer that she stared.

“Um, my name is Hermione, of House Granger,” the woman finally spoke, her voice both young and vibrant in a way that Bellatrix hadn’t thought she would ever hear again, “I’m sorry to have intruded on your home, but I wasn’t aware that there was anyone even here.”

_ ‘Well that’s odd,’ _ thought Bellatrix, her mind snapped out from the daze she had been falling into.

“I’m not quite sure, but I don’t believe I’ve ever heard of House Granger,” Bellatrix’s head cocked to the side as a blush painted the woman’s - _ Hermione’s _ \- face. Bellatrix quite like that creeping flush, or at least she thought she did; there was an ever so small chance that interacting with someone for the first time in who knew how long was coloring her perceptions.

Hermione’s lips opened into an ‘O’, her eyes wide as she began to stand, “Oh, it’s a new House. We were only established just after the War. Though I suppose you wouldn’t know about that if you’ve been up here this long. Truth be told, I hadn’t intended to-”

“Wait,” Bellatrix interrupted in a broken voice as the color, what little remained at least, fled from her face, “How long has it been?”

Why hadn't she thought about it sooner? WIthout any way to properly tell the dates she had been left to herself, becoming lost in the simple day-in, day-out, every single moment of every second the same. Her meals were prepared by the Elves and they had all been given strict instructions by Voldemort to never speak to her at all, they were only there to merely clean and keep her healthy, never once doing anything more or less.

A pinched look crossed over Hermione’s face, the Knightess choosing to look anywhere but directly at her, “It’s been fourteen years since Harold of House Potter slew Voldemort.”

“...”

Bellatrix could do little more than make a token attempt at controlling her breathing as her mind reeled from the uncovered truth. _ ‘Fourteen years I’ve been stuck here alone, unaging, waiting for rescue, _ ** _alone_ ** _ .’ _ She had suspected that may have been years, it had certainly felt like one or two since Voldemort last came to terrorize her, but surely it had been no more than that. Surely no more than two, not a decade and a half of missing life. She _ couldn’t _ have been gone so long that her toddler nephew had grown up and into a life on his own.

“Why did you come here,” Bellatrix asked when her voice was close to usable again, “Certainly it wasn’t to save me then, not if it’s been that long…”

“No,” Hermione answered her words directly, saving Bellatrix the shame of being patronized, “I came here because I’d heard many rumors of a vast library that Voldemort had ruled over, the greatest library that the world had ever seen. I’m an explorer in the employ of Castle Hogwarts, a vassal to their banners. I had no intention of rescuing anyone, and I had no idea anyone would need it. I’m sorry.”

Bellatrix smirked and bit back tears, “Well then. I best show you to it then, eh?”

\---

The library was _ amazing. _

Massive columns stood at even intervals to support an arched ceiling that depicted battles both ancient and forgotten, rows and rows of shelving filling every space from floor to ceiling, over a hundredfold before Hermione lost count. On either corner there were massive gilded statues of Gods and Goddesses lost to myth and legend.

_ ‘I did it,’ _ Hermione smiled to herself as she spun around in place, _ ‘Just like I told them I would.’ _

The woman - _ Bellatrix _\- led her in and through the library until she had seen all that a mortal could, her eyes alight with wonder and happiness at her seemingly impossible accomplishment.

“How did you keep ahold of yourself,” Hermione asked her guide, leaving the length of time unspoken, her body turning and clinking as metal pressed into metal in her effort to get a view of the raven haired beauty.

Bellatrix shrugged, “I read, mostly. Painted whenever I felt like it, threw tantrums and destroyed things when I didn’t.” She pointed off towards a corner of the library that seemed farther away than the length of a Quidditch pitch, “I set fire in here once, that entire section over there. I just wanted to see what would happen. Oh,” she noticed Hermione’s fear stricken face, “Don’t look so put out. The Elves all managed to put it out, righted every book and every flammable item before it could grow too far out of their control. Mostly I… Mostly, I think I just… Existed.”

Hermione noticed the pout her lovely face had turned into, a sadness thick and deep that wound its way between them, “Well then, shall we leave? I think Lady Malfoy and Lady Tonks would like to see their sister again.”

“Are you sure,” Bellatrix asked her with a question in her eyes, as if she wasn’t believing of her motive or her words, “There’s still so much that you haven’t seen yet. More floors, more rooms, countless priceless objects and-”

Hermione held up a metal clad hand to stop the woman’s words, “I’ve already marked this location on a map, I can come back here anytime. Shall we?”

Bellatrix smiled slightly at that answer, moving forward until she could link their arms together, cold metal pressed gently against warm skin, and in tandem they made their way back towards the window of Bellatrix’s room. As they moved, walking in silence broken only by the soft sound of Bellatrix’s heels and Hermione’s clanking armor, a rashness began to fill her senses, descendant of Gryffindor as she was.

“Before we depart,” she brushed away a lock of inky black hair that had strayed onto Bellatrix’s cheek from the breeze blowing through the open window, “I do believe it’s customary for the fair maiden to bestow a kiss to her rescuer.” Her words held a false bravado as she finished, suddenly reeling at the audacity of what she’d asked for. _ ‘Oh Gods,’ _ she felt a flush creep up her neck, _ ‘Oh Gods that was incredibly rude-’ _

Further musings and embarrassment were interrupted by a softness on her lips, the woman’s own pressing down into hers with a sort of gentle insistence, a warm hand lifting up to cup her cheek as the moment deepened. _ ‘Merlin,’ _ Hermione melted as a thumb traced the curve of her cheek, her lips parting for both tongue and breath.

All too soon, for Hermione at the least, the embrace ended with soft pants of breath that fought for some sort of control as words tumbled past her lips.

“I- well, that is- Um, what I mean is that-”

“Hush,” Bellatrix placed a fingertip against her lips in quiet instruction, “Let’s revisit this at the bottom of the tower, if you’d like? Lovely as you are, I’m dreadfully ready to go home.”

“Of course,” Hermione smiled into the soft twilight and the beauty hidden behind Bellatrix’s dark eyes, “Let’s.”

**Author's Note:**

> Like Bellamione? https://discord.gg/pcfMU4F come on in and join the server!


End file.
